There are 7 owner-reported driver assist & adas complaints for the 2021 Subaru Foresterin NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
I was going down a highway using the lane keeping assistance feature. Suddenly the vehicle stopped following the road and ran me into a ditch. I was able to steer back onto the road, but if the ditch had been deeper I believe there would have been a rollover accident. The root cause is that when the audio system is turned up in the vehicle, the warning chimes do not interrupt the music or sound loudly enough to be heard over it. When the vehicle needs manual intervention assistance staying on the road, the driver may not hear the warning sound in time before the system disengages. The warning chime sounds need to be able to be heard over the audio system. This exact thing has happened to me 2-3 times in the last year.
Vehicle unexpectedly brakes for no apparent reason, has almost caused us to be rear ended. Subaru inspected vehicle, says the Eyesight ADA camera needs to be replaced at our cost. This vehicle is only 4 years old and has 38,000 miles. This is clearly a safety defect.
The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH, the automatic emergency braking system activated, bringing the vehicle to a complete stop. The vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 24,000.
Braking system sometimes is activated by a sign on the side of the road, by a tree if we are turning, or nothing at all. Nearly in 2 rear end collisions when the system activated incorrectly. We cannot drive into our garage with the system activated...brakes keep slamming on. The only safe way to operate this subaru is to manually turn it off every time we start the car. Subaru dealership states it cannot recalibrate the eyesight system as it does not have that ability. Dealership is in Corvallis oregon. Lane notification system also has issues in construction zones (it tries to steer the car into the water barriers marking the lane changes. At least the side warning system can be permanently disabled. We have filed many complaints with subaru to no avail. Promised return phone calls never happen, phone transfers to their technical department result in dropped calls. This system is dangergous!!!
My Forester needed new tires at 13,250 miles. I had my tires rotated and that is when Subaru noticed the worn tires. I called Subaru Corporate and they informed me that do not replace tires. I bought new tires and then went to have a wheel alignment. The technician told me he could do the alignment but he couldn't adjust the Lane assist diagnostic or the VDC and other safety features. Now I am unsure what to do. I have tried to resolve this with Subaru of America without resolution. Hopefully, you will be able to help me. Why are Subaru dealers not doing these adjustments? Thanks for your help with this serious situation. [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
The RCTA system operates very poorly. When backing up and we see a car in the rear camera screen approaching from the back side of our car, we cannot hear or see any allert. My wife and I are both seniors in our seventies and I suffer from normal age-related hearing loss....my wife not so much. Her hearing is quite normal. But we cannot hear the alert alarm. Also, the visual alert is located in a place where you do not look when you are backing up. It wasn't until I owned the car for four months that I discovered that there is a visual RCTA alert in the side view mirrors (of all places)....an area one does not look at while backing up. With a car with a rear camera, your eyes are usually glued to the camera display screen when backing up; after all, it is a safety device. We have nearly had a collision a half dozen times already. I contacted Subaru about this issue, and they told me that there is nothing that they can do and that in their words "As you can imagine, finding the right balance for all of our owners is a difficult job." this sound alert should be adjustable...it is not. And the visual alert should be in a place where your eyes are looking when backing up. Right now, the Subaru RCTA is worthless to us.
While driving down a two-lane road at 50-55 mph, the car started beeping and said "obstacle detected" despite there being *no* cars in front of, to the side of, or to the rear of me. Also, there was *nothing* on the road (no roadkill, litter, or other debris). Immediately upon beeping, the speed abruptly dropped from 50 to below 15 in a matter of milliseconds. Had there been a car behind me, they would've either rear-ended me or had to swerve (possibly into oncoming traffic), and had the road been wet or slippery, I would've likely spun out, possibly into oncoming traffic. Had the incident occurred on the interstate, it is entirely possible that I could've been rear-ended by a driver traveling at full speed. Again, all of this over no physical obstacle and with nobody around. This isn't the first time that the crash mitigation system has been activated over no observable obstacle (in fact, similar incidents have happend at least thrice), but this resulted in the most severe and abrupt change in velocity and was particularly concerning due to the high likelihood that it could cause an accident if the event had occurred with someone behind me. Since the incident happened maybe two hours ago, it has yet to be inspected and it didn't cause an accident, but I no longer wish to own the vehicle as it's clearly not safe for passenger travel.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 26, 2026